The James Logan Courier

By Jessica Rosales, Courier Special Projects Editor

The week James Logan's new security system was implemented, the Union City Fire Marshall cited the school for safety violations related to gates closed as part of the reduction in entrances to the campus.

On April 2, the fire department informed Logan administrators of the fire violations. In both cases, the citations related to the pins that extend into the ground below to secure the gates in a closed position. One was locked in the closed position; another was stuck closed.

Freshman house principal, Matt Smith was actually the one who signed the Fire Inspector’s citation after school that day. In an email response to questions submitted by The Courier , he said that “everything we’re doing in trying to implement the new security plan is for the safety of the students.”


As a result, the gates will be kept in an open position, but the security at the gates will be tightened.

“If this is a plan for the students’ safety, how come we didn’t have a say in what should have happened? I think this is idiotic,” said senior Nikko Zarate.

Others on campus complained the school was beginning to look like a prison and even took the liberty to post flyers in classrooms with quotes in relation to what was going on.

The construction of the Performing Arts Center has added to the situation.

Principal Don Montoya sent out an update on the safety procedures that addressed this issue; he said that “It was just coincidental that the installation of the fencing and beginning of construction [on the new Performing Arts Center] began at about the same time as we implemented the new procedures.”

“I barely had enough time to get to class with all the traffic that the construction brought up. They stopped traffic to allow their construction vehicles to pass through. Why didn’t they just wait until all the students were in class?” said senior Tran Huynh.

Also, the parking situation has changed, with the staff parking lot being extended into more of the student spaces, making it more difficult for students hto find space to park.

“I couldn’t find any parking for students, but I saw plenty of open spaces in the teacher parking,” said senior Monique Toledo.

Though the complaints have seemed to subside now that a few weeks have passed, some seniors see this as an awful way to end their four years in high school.

“I guess its okay for the freshmen next year, because they will have never known Logan as it was before. For us seniors, we had three years without these “safety” regulations and we liked it better that way,” said Zarate.School